Sweetpeacefuldream and the Farrier

This week Sweetpeacefuldream was due to have her hooves trimmed and to get new shoes.  She was mostly good for the farrier, towards the end she was a getting bored and tried to mess with him a little.  She decided to jiggle her last foot, leaning on him a little for entertainment.  The great thing about her is that once you tell her to knock it off, she generally does and then goes back to being extremely well behaved.  I often forget that she's just five years old, she is very mature mentally for her age. 

Tyler Garrison with Waverly Forge is who I have used for years to take care of my horses' hooves.  He does a wonderful job and has a very relaxed "stall-side manner".  Tyler makes sure that the horses' feet are balanced, angles are correct, toes not too long, and that the hooves are shaped to match the underlying bone structures.  Over the course of just this week as Miss Pea is adjusting to her new shoes I see her traveling much more efficiently.  She is interfering less with her hind legs, and has more of a reach to her stride at the walk and trot. 

I don't have any photos of her rides this week, but she did quite well.  We have continued to work out of the arena in the fields, but she has stayed more tense than I would like.  When Miss Pea is anxious she will clench and grind her teeth, so it is always obvious when she's not feeling her best.  She does it pretty dramatically outside of the arena when we're riding out, and the behavior has not abated as I hoped.  We've tried riding out alone, with just the dogs, and with other horses.  She is best with just me riding and the dogs along.  Adding other horses really gets her amped up.  Because she will need more time to really get comfortable riding out, I've decided to just prepare her for showjumping and perhaps dressage for the makeover in Kentucky.  I still think she would do just fine as an eventer with more training and work, but I think it's in her best interest to play to her strengths for the competition in October, and not stress her by trying to teach her all three phases in such a short period of time. 

I decided on showjumping after taking her through some gymnastic grids this week.  I've ridden her over cross rails and led her over the barrels, and lunged her over poles.  She really seems to "get it" with the jumping in the arena.  She settles down, gets all focused, and really hunts for the jumps.  Her ears prick forward and she gets all stretchy and limber when arranging her feet over fences.  The gymnastic line we worked on this week was a long straight series of about six fences.  Three ground poles set at a trot distance, then three cross rails with two strides in between, then two low verticals set with three canter strides in between.  She loved figuring out the puzzle!  I of course don't jump the youngsters very hard, but I like to keep their brains working towards problem solving.  Lots of low jumps with complicated footwork is great for their brains, as well as helping them be more coordinated.  Miss Pea enjoys it tremendously, and I love feeling her quiet down and really reason through the challenges.